Okay, I've sung music in Slavic languages, Romani, Hungarian, German, and Romance languages. I've performed with Slavic choruses and a Latino group. But until lately, I'd never done much with Celtic music.

That all changed last October when I was house-sitting for a couple travelling around Ireland. Of course, I followed their movements by email and social media. When they returned, they brought me a book of Irish songs. Soon, they had me sing a couple of Irish melodies at a ceremony renewing their marriage vows.

Today is the centenary of Nicholas II’s abdication. That’s right, it happened while Lenin was still living in exile in Zurich, before his infamous journey in the sealed train. Well before the October Coup, as I wrote last week.

While the Tsar was visiting soldiers on the front, strikes and protests grew rapidly in the capital of Petrograd, and soldiers were siding with demonstrators in large numbers, even shooting at police in one incident. Nicholas had completely lost the confidence of the people, and of most officials, as well.

Here, I must inject a bit of name-dropping. A key historical figure’s great grandson took a Russian culture course from me at Ohio State over ten years ago. His ancestor, Mikhail Rodzianko, was President of the Duma, and “bugged” Nicholas to do something about the situation. On March 11, he wired the Tsar, to “nominate without delay a person possessing the confidence of the people and who would form a new Government… Any procrastination is tantamount to death.” An irritated Nicholas chose to ignore him.

As he was returning to Petrograd from army headquarters in Mogilev, his train was stopped in a small station by insurgent soldiers, and he was forced to sign his abdication. He also submitted his son’s abdication on his behalf. He named his brother successor, but he was convinced not to accept. And that was the end of the monarchy.

In closing, I’ll name two good sites for learning more. One is this post from Russia Beyond the Headlines, which is always good for in-depth info on the country. It has some good quotes by contemporary observers.

The other is the Pushkin House’s Project 1917, which has daily updates with similar quotes. Since I’ve written so favorably about Stefan Zweig before, I’m a little disappointed to learn that he considered the abdication the result of an Anglo-French plot, but then, who knew what to believe amidst all the wartime propaganda at the time?

Am I jumping the gun by a few months? Not at all. Let me explain why the Leninist October coup is nothing to celebrate.

The only true Russian Revolution of 1917 began March 8 - February 23 by the Julian Calendar still in use in Russia, hence it was called the February Revolution (it was also International Women’s Day). It culminated in the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II a week later. Because of the privations of war, looming famine, and general mismanagement of the country, wide segments of society—including many monarchists—called on Nicholas to step down. He was forced to do so when his carriage was trapped in a railway station on his return trip from visiting WWI troops.

What happened in October (or November by the Gregorian Calendar) is most accurately described as a coup. I’m not going into great detail here – interested readers can do their own research on Wikipedia or, better yet, read a large work like Utopia in Power. In any event, it was not an overthrow of the tsardom, but rather of the provisional government. Furthermore, the Bolsheviks managed to force new elections for December, but when they garnered only about a quarter of the votes, they forcibly shut down the newly convened legislature in early January, one of their greatest crimes against democracy.

Lest anyone think I’m repeating some right-wing cant, please see the interpretation of leftist American linguist and political commentator Noam Chomsky below. If you want to cut to the quick, forward to 4:20. As he points out near the end, Lenin, along with Felix Dzerzhinsky, established the Cheka, the precursor of the KGB. Lenin and the Bolsheviks are nothing to celebrate.

​But the broad-based, genuine February Revolution is worthy of commemoration. I think it's time to take back the holiday!

I’m going to start off the month with another round-up on hard-to-find opportunities for meaningful travel experiences.

Tortellini in Bologna
You can actually learn to make the pasta the old-fashioned way, in the capital of Emilia-Romagna. The region enjoys a tremendous reputation for its cuisine, producing gastronomic delights such as Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and Modena’s balsamic vinegar. Bologna can also boasts of the world’s oldest university and consistently ranks high in quality of life surveys. See the Condé Nast Traveler story here. Or have a look at this site, "Delicious Emilia," for other classes, tours and tastings.

Folklore Expeditions in Russia and BelarusAmerican Friends of Russian Folklore offers the chance to join teams filming, audio recording and otherwise documenting local traditions at destinations from Belarus to Russia’s Far East Kamchatka Peninsula to Lake Baikal.

Hidden Figures & Langley
A couple of hours from my home on Virginia’s Eastern Shore, on the other side of the Chesapeake Bay on the Hampton Peninsula, the NASA Langley installation has been marking the accomplishments of black female “human computers” who overcame segregation and played essential roles in America’s space program in the early 1960s. One of the three, celebrated in the recent book/film Hidden Figures even did the calculations for the orbits that allowed John Glenn to go into space and return safely. Two articles on a related exhibit at the Hampton History Museum can be found here and here.

Armenian Fire Jumping
I'll leave you with this curious tradition, which dates to pagan times but has taken on Christian significance.